By Hollie Harris
AT A meeting of the Peregian Beach Community Collective, Noosa Council was called on to permanently block access from the Scanlon development into Rufous Street.
The collective requested Deputy Mayor Frank Wilkie to have the Noosa Council urgently take every possible step to have the southern end of Rufous Street adjacent to the kindergarten permanently closed to vehicular traffic.
The urgency has arisen because the developer has been accessing the site from Rufous Street, despite council development conditions which stipulate access must be via Sandpiper Lane.
The concern is to reduce safety issues for the kindergarten, the tennis club, vegie village and pedestrians by the western end of the existing pedestrian lane way being restricted to one essential car park for the kindergarten and emergency vehicles only.
Deputy Mayor Frank Wilkie said permanent road access to the site had long been ruled out.
“Traffic access to the new supermarket was not an option because of safety concerns and to protect the amenity of this area with a kindergarten, tennis club, parkland and permaculture gardens,” Cr Wilkie said.
Cr Wilkie said council-commissioned design work currently underway focused on walkways and people access only in that pocket.
“While there’s been no application received as yet for the rest of the IGA site, the council-approved master plan for the Rufous Street precinct shows no road access from the north side.
“The passage of Unity Water and contractor vehicles at times during construction has understandably concerned residents and both long and short-term solutions are currently being considered to help cement this as a pedestrian-only zone,” Cr Wilkie said.
Property owner Tony Scanlon was contacted but no comment was provided at this stage.
